The Origin of Dilly

When I meet new people the topic of my nickname usually comes up. Apparently there are not too many folks wandering around under the moniker of "Dilly."

The obvious: my last name is Dillard, no relation to the department store. Chop off the last three letters, add a "y" and viola. Of course there were other variations my early peers found delightful, from "dill pickle" to "dildo" (at a time when I doubt many of us even knew what a dildo was.) I wish I could claim that my extensive vocabulary collided with my hyper-inflated sense of adolescent self-worth and I tagged myself, but that is not the case.

Credit lies with a short, bespectacled gentleman by the name of Mick Connolly. He was the varsity soccer coach at Concord High School my first three years there. I never got to play for Mick (three years on the JV and he retired before my senior year go figure) , but I certainly got to train under him. I don't remember about anyone else on the teams, but he called my buddy Chris Greene "Greeny" and called me "Dilly." Not terribly clever in hindsight, but both names stuck well beyond high school.

The "sooper" part came from an intentional misspelling. I had been doodling superman logos on my notes in class, and wanted my AIM screenname to be "superdilly." Well that was taken. Thankfully, because after ten years, "superdilly" just looks dumb.

Into the Rabbit Hole

Hello World!

I am dilly.

I'll write something interesting soon.

Maybe.